Fight Night Champion (PS3)

I've had this for a long time now and I do see myself play it from time to time. It isn't one that goes on the bottom of the pile or exchanged/sold at a game shop.The gameplay has massively improved from previous versions and the stamina bar really makes the game alot more tactical. Its not like a wii version of boxing.The graphics are still great and the counters are brilliant.The single player tournament is fantastic. The storyline and cut scenes are wonderful and feel real, could easily be made into a film. You play as a boxer who moves from different weights and goes through alot, from training gyms to prison to broken hands and bribed judges. It may start off easy but the difficulty increases and the last fight you may spend hours completing.The two player is fantastic and great fun to play with friends.

Great boxing game very easy controls very realistic graphics and comes with plenty of boxers to pick from good value

OK LET ME JUS SAYTHIS GAME WILL GET YOU HOOKED, THIS GAME IS GREAT, 10/10Story has alot to it... not gunna spoil that..Online gaming is challenging when you get good opponents,Legacy mode offline and online are great aswellCant fault this game, controls are spot on.. get it!!!

Poor game, which is a shame as it has some very good features. The gameplay itself is very laggy, and the frame rate is appalling. Myself and others who have the game noticed that it freezes a lot, dispite having brand new copies.The GOAT difficulty is a challenge for the sim fighters out there, but I feel most will play on Champion or Pro. On GOAT the AI just land at a stupidly high success rate, and very rarely do fights last more than 3-4 rounds. They always manage to break the defence and it becomes very frustrating. Even after many hours testing using different sliders, there was no improvement.As with most EA games, the online is pathetic. Servers are laughable. Not even worth commenting on.Most boxing fans will probably look into this game, as it's the latest boxing title out there. EA seems to have diverted its attention to MMA/UFC, so don't expect another Fight Night from EA. This might not be a bad thing however; let's hope another publisher picks up the game and takes it forward, hopefully for next gen.

I pre-ordered this game and I was very excited when it arrived as I absolutely loved fight night 4 (I reached the greatest of all time) so this game had a lot to live up to.Unfortunately, it doesn't quite reach the benchmark set by its predecessor.Pros:1. The career mode is really good, it's a great addition to see the life of a boxer. Each fight in this mode has set requirements e.g. you've broken your right hand so you can only punch with your left or a corrupt manager has paid off the judges to ignore your scores so you need to win by knockout etc.2. The controls are mapped to the buttons right off, not as a patch like in FN4 so if you don't like the "full spectrum control" (and I didn't), you have that option.3. The legend mode is still available so if you don't want to go through career mode, you can still play the game in the classic way i.e. fighting for experience points, levelling up etc.4. The blocking system is now semi-automatic, meaning that you just have to press the block button and the fighter will automatically block high or low as required, meaning it's no longer blind luck when you block.Now the cons:1. The control system is incredibly sluggish, even using the buttons. You can press a button and the fighter may or may not throw the punch. I especially have trouble executing the right uppercut. This lag makes it really hard to throw effective combinations.2. The graphics aren't much better than in FN4, in fact in the cut scenes in career mode I'd say they are worse.3. The cut scenes occasionally freeze and jump like a scratched DVD4. Power punches have been removed, there is a power modifier but this doesn't really seem to do much. I connected three times in a row with a so-called "power punch" and it didn't even phase my opponent. This removes a very strategic weapon from the arsenal.5. Punches don't seem to effect the opponents at all, you would think a proper hook or uppercut would at least cause the opponent to back off a bit!6. There is no way to see the opponent's stamina or health, this means that you can't tell when is a good time to surge forward for the knockout.All in all, this game is good fun but it is plagued by little things that just shouldn't be an issue in a game with such good predecessors. It feels like the game was rushed and it still has lots of bugs. I will stick with it as it is still enjoyable and I'll wait for a patch which will hopefully sort out the control issues.

Most annoying boxing game I've ever played. The whole gameplay system is seriously flawed and gives unreasonable and unrealistic buffs to the AI. The whole knockdown system is predicated on the 'stamina' bar and counter punching, a boxers attributes seems to mean little, it ruins the immersion and any hope of a realistic fight. Its impossible to for example, deliberately take punches because your boxers style is that of a glass jaw tough as old boots Jack Dempsey character who wants to take a combo to get in close and then take the other boxers head off. If you try that style even with boxers who should have the attributes to do that, you will get knocked out off some bum just because the stamina bar will drop to zero from the punches you take and it also drops for punches thrown. Its a stupid dumb boxing system and I wish i'd never bought this game, no wonder there hasn't been a boxing title in years if this is the way EA produces boxing games. I used to enjoy boxing games and a passing interest in good boxing but unless the next boxing game has a drastically different gameplay system i'll not buy again. In addition the legacy mode is basically a linear series of fights and clip scenes which can be completed in 4 hours, with a ridiculous "boss" fight at the end, the story was generally interesting but was a missed opportunity to do more with it and add a bit more interactivity to the mode.